Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight - Thoughts

Momodora III was the first entry in the series to feel like a proper game, but rdein's fourth attempt, Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight, makes III look positively childish. Reverie is Momodora but all grown-up and anxiety-riddled, filled with gloomy locations, darker story beats, and a subdued—but fitting—color palette. Gone are the simplistic Cave Story references and chibi girls slapping goofy eyeballs (well, you'll still slap monsters with a leaf, but they'll be of the shadowy and abominable variety.) Your adventure through the City of Karst will be equal parts foreboding and awe-inspiring, unsettling and beautiful; Reverie Under the Moonlight is the elegant culmination of everything rdein has learned thus far.

I'll start by revealing that Reverie is short, but not bite-sized short. I've run through the game multiple times (on increased difficulties) and none of my playthroughs have extended past three hours, with the shortest being just shy of sixty minutes. That's not to say that Reverie feels brief though; you spend a decent amount of time in each location, and just as you start to get a grasp on the enemies and traps in one area, you'll soon venture into another. This keeps Reverie feeling punchy and fresh, maintaining the energetic spirit of the old Momodora titles, but giving you enough time to settle into each zone so that you grow attached to the music and enemies as you search for goodies.

Structurally, Reverie Under the Moonlight returns to the Metroidvania genre, but keeps its levels and boss fights compact, akin to Momodora III. There's health upgrades to collect and various baubles you can equip, which add some minor flair to your combat repertoire. While there are hints of a neat combo system here, given Kaho's well-animated 3-hit chain and enemy flinch states, it's... not very deep. It is, however, quite satisfying, especially with how easily you can mix in powerful ranged attacks. The hardest difficulty requires you to essentially play the game flawlessly, taking nearly zero hits—which would brutal if not for the fact that the bow is your best offensive ability, letting you play cautiously and melt most of the bosses. If you learn to love it, the bow shall reward you well.

Not that most people will be playing the "1-hit kill" mode of course. The default difficulty is well-balanced for your first playthrough, though rdein's difficulty curve will vary from room to room. Some areas will test you with tricky foes and nasty spikes, while other times you'll stroll through a section just to unlock a shortcut and go "wait, that was it?" This is the charm of rdein's games though: you never know what to expect from one screen to the next, whether it be new foes, a new boss, or environmental vignettes.

Speaking of: Reverie, like other Momodora games, has a simple narrative that's cloaked in its own enigmatic history. Unlike Dark Souls however, there aren't easy ways to decipher and unravel it; you're a stranger to Karst and its adjoining lands, encountering and dispatching of characters that have six lines of dialogue or less. I like this approach because it gives precedence to the ambiance of Reverie over its lore, evoking the history of the Queendom in short glimpses, often found in stray details like a burnt painting or broken bird cage. Sure, there are NPCs that will give you a general gist of what's going on, but you'll feel like you're interrupting the lives of most folks you encounter—or what little life they have left.

Lastly, the game is smooth as butter to play. rdein has always nailed player control in the previous titles so this isn't a huge surprise, but coupled with the larger sprites and more detailed backgrounds, it's impossible not to be impressed with the aesthetic Reverie displays. Throw in some melancholic melodies that underpin just how forgone Karst is, and you'll find yourself remembering sections of Reverie more often than in rdein's older games. And maybe that's what strikes me so much about Reverie: it has that ineffable quality where it stays glued to your brain, even after the credits roll.

Even though I enjoyed the previous entry plenty, Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight was so captivating that I immediately started a Hard playthrough upon finishing it—and yet another playthrough after that. It's a greatly enjoyable mini-metroidvania, although using the word "mini-" belies its quality; what it lacks in longevity it makes up for in personality. Reverie feels like a complete package, full of good fights, interesting settings, smooth controls, and some really stunning music. I'd still call Momodora a quaint series, but with Reverie it's no longer as small or quiet as it used to be—and it's all the better for it.